I offered to do the dishes and told Church to take the bathroom first. The Harley meant I’d had to pack creatively for the trip south and I was out of wardrobe reinforcements, so I asked Jules if it was okay if I borrowed his laundry room. He nodded absently as he headed towards the opposite side of the house from where Church and I were staying. Church told me he would find something for me to sleep in for the night and took the chore of laundry out of my hands by mixing a load of his stuff and my stuff together before disappearing into the bathroom. I waited until I heard the shower shut off before starting the dishwasher and wasn’t surprised at all when my phone rang and Kallie’s number was the one that flashed on the screen.

I made my way to the front steps of the sprawling house and blinked in surprise as bugs with glowing backsides swirled around me the minute I sat down.

“I already told you I’m not getting into the middle of this with you and Wheeler.” I didn’t even give her a chance to launch into her defense. I didn’t want to hear it.

“I went to try and talk to him today. He was with another girl.” She was crying and sniffling. If I hadn’t known that she was the chef behind this particular shit stew, I would have felt really sorry for her.

“He does not have some girl in my apartment, Kallie. I’ve known Wheeler for years and I don’t believe he’s the type to jump into a revenge fuck. You broke his heart … again.”

“He was with another girl and she was gorgeous. She answered the door and then bolted when I demanded to know who she was. Apparently she’s your neighbor.”

I sighed and put my forehead in my hand. I didn’t even want to think about how terrified Poppy probably had been when she was faced with my sister’s misguided wrath. “Poppy. She’s watching Dolly for me while I’m gone. She was probably just over to get more dog food or some of Dolly’s toys. She wasn’t there with Wheeler. Not that you get a say in who he spends time with after what you did.”

There was a soft sob on the other end of the phone. “I have eyes, Dixie. It didn’t look innocent.”

I heaved a sigh. There was no way I was going to waste the breath it would take to explain why it wasn’t possible that there was anything going on between Wheeler and my stunning neighbor. Kallie was too caught up in her own drama to have the empathy Poppy’s situation called for.

“You need to leave Wheeler alone, sis. It’s time to go your separate ways. You can’t care more about him after you threw him away than you did while you had him in your grasp. He deserves better than that.”

She hiccupped a little and I heard her blow her nose. I moved the phone away from my ear and made a face. “What about me, Dixie? What about what I deserve? I’ve been with Wheeler since I was fourteen. I’ve loved him since before I understood what love was.”

I swore under my breath and pushed my hair off my forehead.

“You screwed up more than once, Kallie. He forgave you the first time. I don’t think it’s fair to expect him, or the rest of us for that matter, to keep forgiving you for the same mistake. You should only have to touch a hot stove once to know that it’s going to burn.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.” She sounded genuinely terrified and I couldn’t blame her. He’d made her life pretty easy up until this point and now she was going to have to figure out that her actions had some really harsh consequences.

“You should have thought about that when you went to bed with a guy that wasn’t him then.” I didn’t mean to scold her but I couldn’t stop the censure from creeping into my voice. I was really disappointed in her and in her choices. Even I was having a hard time finding the silver lining this go-around.

The line went silent and I almost hung up because I thought she had disconnected. I barely heard her when she whispered, “It was a girl.”

I dropped the phone. It hit the cement and bounced. I was sure the screen was going to be shattered when I picked it up and breathed a sigh of relief when it was still intact. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

It was Kallie’s turn to sigh. “I didn’t cheat on him with another guy, it was a girl. The first time I was unfaithful it was because I thought something was missing in the relationship. Our sex life has always been fine. Wheeler is sexy and very intent on making sure things are good, but I wasn’t into it and he could tell. I thought it was me. I thought we’d outgrown one another.” She sniffed again and I mumbled her name softly. “I hated it. I hated the sex with the other guy so much. I hated that it hurt Wheeler. I hated myself. It was awful. When Wheeler agreed to take me back and we got engaged I told myself I was going to make it work no matter what. I thought something was wrong with me and that if I ignored it, it would go away.”

“Why didn’t you say something to someone, Kallie?” She was around when I was in high school and crushing hard on Remy Archer. I had had a thing for Rule and Rome’s brother for the longest time. I’d taken my shot at a party one weekend and cornered the handsome and preppy half of the Archer twins and stolen my first kiss. It had been exactly like Kallie described. Fine. There were no fireworks, the world didn’t move, and it was clear I was way more into it than Remy was. Years later after Remy had passed away and Rule had married his best friend the news that Remy had been gay had made the rounds. It was far from shocking and all of us that knew Remy when he was younger wished he hadn’t had to spend so much of his life pretending to be something he wasn’t. My tummy flipped itself into knots thinking that my sister had put herself in the same boat.